U.S. Data Centers Increasing Energy Efficiency

The researchers found that energy consumption by data centers in the United States began to plateau in 2010. Consumption has remained steady since then, and accounts for just under 2 percent of U.S. consumption. The growth rate of consumption will remain steady despite the fact that the installed server base is expected to increase by 40 percent for the period between 2010 and 2020.

The report credits better cooling and powering strategies, better power management and cloud computing for the increase in efficiency.

Part of the overall increase in efficiency is the ability to virtualize computing equipment. This enables reduction in cooling and powering demands and makes it possible to load devices more fully.